Grooming
by Azremodehar
Summary: [MAGIC KAITO] A series of drabbles on the personal grooming of one Kuroba Kaito.
1. Kaito

Contrary to popular belief, Kaito did in fact comb his hair. Quite often, actually. Several time a day. And he was always very careful to clean up any stray hairs that may have dropped. Kaito had very good personal grooming habits in general; he showered twice a day (morning and night), scrubbed and exfoliated. There was a damned good reason he never had pimples. And if those habits had improved somewhat of late, nobody was complaining (least of all his mom).

His own continual lack of skin blemishes also gave him the perfect opportunity to rib Hakuba, when the other came to school one day with a great, fat zit on his nose. Kaito had noticed with some personal amusement that Hakuba was scrubbing his hands and face far more frequently after that.

Most teenage boys – even the more "sophisticated" (as proven by Hakuba) among them – had less than exemplary hygiene. They didn't think they had any _reason_ to have good habits. Unlike them, Kaito _did_ have a reason. A very _good_ reason.

The way modern forensic science was progressing, there was no way he could afford to let a single hair, or a bit of dead skin, or a broken nail fall where he couldn't control it. Hairspray (even on the skin) and gloves helped some, but exceeding attention to detail in grooming was far more important. Really, he sometimes thought that his opponents didn't give him nearly enough credit; avoiding forensics these days was a _lot_ harder than it had been in his father's day, and he had to worry about it _constantly._

Not that he would ever – or _could_ ever – admit the reason for his constant cleanliness. And as messy as he _acted_, he didn't think that anyone except Hakuba and Akako had noticed (his mom didn't count.). Between the two of them, Kaito was far more worried about Hakuba; Akako wasn't and enemy, or even an opponent these days, really. And although Kid had never left anything for the forensics teams to _find_ at a heist (and oh, how they combed the sites these days), Hakuba had probably already made the connection. He just couldn't – as usual – prove anything. Kaito intended to keep it that way.

Most criminals got caught because they were careless. In spite of all appearances, Kaito was anything _but_ careless.


	2. Hakuba

Hakuba had noticed, after some observation, Kuroba's unusually good personal grooming habits. At first – for a while, really – it had seemed to him that good grooming was the _only_ good habit that Kuroba possessed. Indeed, after one particularly bad (and noticeable) pimple, he had even sought to emulate Kuroba's thoroughness.

Until he noticed, finally, that Kid never left even the slightest trace of himself at any of his heists. It wasn't only fingerprints that he neglected to leave behind (which really, any two-bit burglar knew not to leave), it was so much as a single hair, or a single piece of dead skin.

Kid left nothing, as if he were really a phantom. The reason then, for Kuroba's nearly obsessive attention to cleanliness became abundantly clear. It left a bitter taste in Hakuba's mouth. It also made him realize that Kuroba – Kid – was worlds better than he had ever given the thief credit for.

He realized then, that he had a long way to go before he could catch Kid. It only made him work harder.


	3. Kaito 2

Kaito normally had superb grooming, but when Kid went out on a heist, he took it to another level. It hadn't always been so – he had once thought that his normal, strenuous routine would be enough. But he had been mistaken, and a single dropped hair had been enough to convince Hakuba (if no one else) of his identity.

So now when he was preparing for his heists, Kaito took time for an extra shower, just to make sure. A little bit of hairspray helped to keep his hair in place (and he always made sure to use enough to prevent another stray from being dislodged – once had been more than enough), both on his head and on his body. He even made sure of his eyebrows and eyelashes with a special solution, the recipe for which he found, somewhat belatedly, among his dad's equipment.

Kaito never dropped a hair at a heist again, and he made double sure to never drop one while 'incognito,' either. At least not where Hakuba was around to retrieve it. Because one hair was bad enough, but two—Two would be enough to damn him.


	4. Hakuba 2: Cosmetics

Hakuba had certainly been in close proximity to Kaitou Kid often enough to have taken note of the distinct scent of cosmetics that hovered around him. It wasn't all that surprising, really, considering the thief's (admittedly well-deserved) reputation as a master of disguise. He had also been in close proximity to one Kuroba Kaito often enough, when he _knew_ the other boy wouldn't have had time for his usual rigourous scrubbing routine to notice the same scent about him.

It was really a grave misfortune, Hakuba always thought, that olfactory evidence wouldn't stand up in court; that cosmetic scent _was_ highly distinctive, and not one that most men – or even most _women, _for that matter – carried about them. The worst part though, was how in his more irrational moments, it seemed sometimes that Kuroba was positively _gloating_ about it. Most of the time of course, Hakuba knew that this wasn't so; Kuroba had an… _enthusiastic_ personality, but even out of 'character' he was too much a gentleman to openly gloat about something so petty.

Still, sometimes Hakuba _really_ wished that olfactory evidence was admissible in court. He would have a field day.


	5. Aoko

Kaito wasn't a normal boy. Aoko had figured this out almost as soon as she met him – he was smarter, and nicer, and could do magic. He stayed not-normal as they grew up; even if he did _some_ of the same things as other boys, he did them _differently. _And he was always her best friend.

In their second year of high school though, Aoko started to notice a few things about him, things that were even more different from normal boys. It wasn't the make-up – he'd been doing _that_ since they were twelve, and she'd gotten used to the smell around him – or even his fastidiousness (he'd always taken a little more care than most boys, although that had increased, she thought, but she wasn't sure). It was the way he was quiet sometimes, or occasionally had bandages in odd places, even though she knew there was no way he could have gotten them. The way she sometimes thought she saw him thinking deeply before he noticed, and became her smiling Kaito again.

It had been suggested – implied, really – by certain people (notably their classmate Hakuba) that Kaito might have been the Kaitou Kid. The very thought horrified Aoko; there was no _way_ it could be possible. She herself had provided him with an alibi after all. Even if he _had_ changed since Kid had reappeared.


End file.
